I get a lot of spam, the majority of it intercepted by my anti-spam software (Spamfire for Mac/Win), and also a lot of viruses in my e-mail, most of them intercepted by my anti-virus software. As I tell my friends and family, you'd have to be crazy to be on the Internet without anti-virus software and current virus definitions. There are freebie anti-virus programs, such as ClamXav (Mac) or ClamWin (Win), and several commercial products; I don't have a particular recommendation, other than that you find one that you like and can live with (that doesn't crash or cripple your computer....) and keep it updated.
The virus spam I caught in my spam filter this morning, though, is noteworthy because it tries very hard to look like a legitimate e-mail.
Read more...From: net-happenings@listserv.classroom.com
The icon might be one you don't recognize; I just picked one from a library of free icons. Most people, though, use the "hide extensions" feature on their computers, which means you wouldn't see that the attached file is actually text.zip — a compressed archive file that could contain any kind of file at all. Sometimes the virus author gets even sneakier, giving the attached file a name like harmless.txt.exe because it will show up as "harmless.txt" when in fact it is a dangerous EXEcutable.
To: (my e-mail address)
Subject: Returned mail: Data format error
Date: Fri, 7 Apr 2006 16:32:35 +0300
The original message was received at Fri, 7 Apr 2006 16:32:35 +0300 from [37.103.7.125]
----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors -----
(my e-mail address)
text
Bottom line: you may get legitimate "bounce" messages that look very much like the above virus-carrying example. How can you tell the legit from the viral? Simple — the legit bounce message has no reason to have any kind of file attached at all. Even if you sent a message that had attached files, they will probably not be returned with the bounce message.
My advice:
If you take those simple precautions, you probably don't need the string of garlic around your computer screen or the crucifix guarding the hard disk, although the voodoo doll of the spammer virus author is still a good idea. (It doesn't hurt to know how to tell that the e-mail message actually came from a home DSL line somewhere in Latvia [eastern Europe], but that's rather a lot more work. Shame on you, 81.198.204.184, whoever you are.)
Technorati tags: Virus, Spam, Anti-virus, E-mail
Friday, April 07, 2006
Obnoxious virus spam
Posted by Lincoln Madison at 10:39 AM
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